Counter-terrorism officers trying to staunch the flow of recruits travelling to Syria have made two arrests they say may be linked to the war zone.
A woman aged 25 was arrested in Kempston, Bedfordshire by detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command investigating whether she had travelled to Syria, and if so, whether that trip was linked to violent jihad.
Hours later officers made a second arrest in London, detaining a 32-year-old man “on suspicion of attending a place used for terrorist training”, which they believe was in Syria.
The two operations that led to the arrests are not believed to be linked.
On Tuesday, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said five Britons a week were travelling to Syria to join up with Islamic State (Isis) extremists.
Counter-terror officials say there has been a large increase this year in operations related to Syria, amid fears that returning Britons may be so radicalised they attempt to carry out attacks here.
In the first arrest, police said the woman was arrested in Bedfordshire “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts”. After the 25-year-old was detained, police searched two addresses in Bedfordshire as part of their inquiries.
In the second arrest, the man aged 32 was detained at an address in south-west London. Police were searching an address in south-west London and another in west London as part of their investigation.
Police said both investigations were Syria related.
Both of those arrested were in police custody in central London where they are expected to be interviewed.
On Tuesday Hogan-Howe said the “drumbeat of terrorism in the UK” was now “faster and more intense”.
He said 500 Britons were believed to have travelled to Syria: “Those are the ones that we believe have gone. There may be many more who set out to travel to another country and meandered over to Syria and Iraq in a way that is not always possible to spot when you have failed states and leaky borders.”
Last week police said there had been 218 terror-related arrests so far this year, a significant increase, as a result of police “running exceptionally high numbers of counter-terrorism investigations”.
They added that this year, 16 people have been charged after returning from Syria.
